Cesar Marquez Perez: Sufreiral 2023

Weingut über: Sufreiral

-- Weingut: The motivation to make Sufreiral was to create a wine from a place in where nobody makes wine only with its grapes. Other distinguishing features are: altitude, ventilation and limestone soil, rare in El Bierzo. Sufreiral was in the past a very desired area, due to its orientation and limestone soil. The intention of the wine is to represent the place, intervening as little as possible on it, working as it was done before, with whole grapes and without using pumps. After a dry 2022 throughout Spain, 2023 began with a very cold, rainy winter with strong winds, like those of our childhood. Frost and cold days lasted until spring, which advanced with warm days, threatening an early bud break. After a warm and rainy May, temperatures dropped again in June. Then came more rains and thunderstorms along with some very hot days. This weather made us especially vigilant to avoid the appearance of mildew. July and August were characterized by moderate temperatures. In September the grape harvest began, with plenty of grapes but not very large bunches. It was a vintage like the ones of yesterday; the rains made us harvest many days with waterproof suits. A year with a rainfall of almost 900 litres/m2 has given us wines with more fluidity, reminding us of the 2001 or 2021 vintages. Fresh, floral and more delicate wines than the previous vintage. We picked the grapes manually, putting them to ferment in 1.000 liters containers, with a 30% whole grapes. The grapes are gently stepped on, so that a part of the grapes remains whole in the fermentation, which is carried out spontaneously by the yeast itself without adding any other. The maceration was carried out during 25 days in which the work of each day consisted of sinking daily the cap a bit with the hands. After 25 days, the bleeding and pressing is done, to let it settle for 7 days; after them, it is placed in barrels and left to rest for 1 year.